Herring shed set adrift by storm sparks social media border skirmish

A historic Lubec smoked herring shed that broke away from the waterfront during the Jan. 4 blizzard and eventually beached on Canada's Campobello Island has become the object of a heated international social media exchange.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Lubec Landmarks President Rachel Rubeor expressed regret Thursday that some Campobello residents took offense over a line in a letter she sent to U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, seeking his help in returning the building to its former location on the Lubec side of the narrows.

The newspaper reported that although Rubeor described Campobello and Lubec residents as "the best people on the face of the Earth," she rankled some Canadians with her comment "but if those wonderful people take a chainsaw or a sledgehammer and they want to destroy a historical building, then they are vandals and they are cannibalizing."

Lubec's Board of Selectmen apologized to Campobello residents for those comments, the newspaper reported.

BDN reported that some social media commenters on the Canadian side of Lubec Narrows made some digs of their own about the former McCurdy's Smokehouse brining shed that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Well they let it rot and now it's a safety hazard. And one person's definition of trash might be someone else's treasure," one commenter stated.

BDN reported that two contractors, a Canadian and an American, plan to move the shed from Campobello back to Lubec by Jan. 17.